Trusting In Shadows
by dayanyumenaya
Summary: A new girl joins the institute. (A new purple girl!) Will Static (Remy LeBeau's cousin!) and the other at the X-Mansion be able to convince her that being a mutant isn't all bad? Rating for possible violence in 6th chapter. (Please R&R!)
1. Mutation and Loss

Chapter One of 'Trusting in Shadows'  
  
***(I can honestly say that everything in this chapter is absolutely my own creation, and I own it all. The places mentioned hereafter are purely fictional, and any similarity to anything real is purely coincidental. ^_^)  
  
School had just let out somewhere in Germany, but one girl was already on the steps of the school. Her short, curly brown hair was pulled behind her ears, her eyes closed as she played a haunting blues melody on the harmonica. She was going on for a while before she felt a kick in the back, telling her that the rest of the kids were finally out, and that it was time to go home. She quickly got up her sky blue eyes now alert, shoving the harmonica in her jean pocket as she grabbed her backpack off the stairs, beginning the short walk home.  
  
When she did arrive home, her mother was already busy at work in the kitchen cooking the night's supper, and her father was waiting for her by the front door. "Sabrah!" he called out pleasantly, then added in a conspiratory tone, "Go help your mother with the food, okay?"  
  
"Yes father..." she answered back, the German words sliding easily off her lips. She loved being at home. At school, half of her classes were in English, and she hated the way those words tasted on her tongue. They were similar, but English seemed strangely—barbaric. Her father always said she just was lazy and didn't want to make the effort to learn it, but it appeared that she didn't have a choice in the matter. She stood on her tip- toes, leaning up and giving her father a kiss while setting the backpack down on the floor behind her back while her father was preoccupied. She was already into the kitchen when her father called out to her, "Sabrah! Pick up this bag!" She sighed resignedly, putting it away before going back to help her mother with the food...  
  
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The three of them sat down to the kitchen table to eat about an hour later, hungry and exhausted from the day. After her father said the appropriate blessings, Sabrah grabbed the peppershaker and loaded it onto her food. She loved pepper, and put 'too much for your own good' on anything that was placed in front of her. Her mother, however, was allergic and hated it. After a moment, her mother went into a sneezing fit, hurriedly covering her face and eyes with her hands and napkin. As her father got up from the table to come over to her, Sabrah looked at her mother's hands. She could almost swear they were purple... She blinked a few times, and they were normal again, and her father was at her mother's side.  
  
"Look at you, with the pepper..." he gently scolded Sabrah, "You worry your mother so much, you put silver in her hair!" Sabrah looked, and sure enough, strands of silver were laced about her mother's brown hair. Her mother gasped seeing the silver strands, and ran off to her room.  
  
"Now look what you did!" Sabrah joked, looking to her father as she got up to go after her mother. Her father shrugged, letting her go, and when she was almost to her mother's room, he called out, "Hey—wait! Look what *I* did?"  
  
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The next morning, her father stood in front of Sabrah's bedroom door, banging on it as hard as he could. "Sabrah! Get up, my little kitten! It's time for school!" he called out cheerily in German. A groan was the only sound he got in return to this lovely revelation. "Come on, Sabrah, it's time for school!" he added a bit more seriously. A louder groan. "Sabrah, get your lazy, softic butt out of bed!" he finally called, rolling his eyes. The door opened almost immediately, and Sabrah appeared, her blue eyes covered almost completely by the thick mass of brown curls that happened to be her hair.  
  
"Did you just call me softic?" she asked incredulously, looking at him with wide eyes. "Yes, I did, my kitten. Now get ready for school," he said, walking away with a sigh, putting his hands in the air dramatically as if asking, 'Why?'  
  
Sabrah closed the door after he left, and walked to the mirror. She was not fat! She was actually pretty skinny for her age... Her father had probably meant it as a joke—she never could tell with him. She sighed as she moved her eyes up, and then began staring at them. Were they—yellow? She blinked a few times, and they were green. Wow—did she need glasses! First, her mother is purple, then her eyes are yellow—how crazy was that?  
  
She then furrowed her eyebrows. Wait a second—her eyes were green. Why were her eyes green? They should be blue! She looked back at the mirror, and was shocked to find green eyes still staring back at her. They flashed a yellow color, then turned a more startled shade of blue-green. She gasped, looking at her hands.  
  
Her fingers were longer than normal—but that was normal, right? She was thirteen now, had been for 3 months—she should be growing—right? Her fingernails were almost two inches long. Hadn't she chewed them off the other night? She took a deep breath. She was remembering things wrong. She had been being good with her nails. She hadn't bitten them. So what if her eyes were blue green now instead of blue? That wasn't a big deal. The yellow flashes—that was just her imagination getting the best of her.  
  
She sighed deeply again, getting out her brush and began brushing her hair. Everything was normal in her life for another five minutes—little did she know that those five minutes would be the last 'normal' moments she would ever have again.  
  
She sighed again, shaking her head. "You're going mishugana, Miss Sabrah..." she said to herself in a mixture of German and Yiddish, "You're going crazy..." She looked to her reflection for support, and began to freak out at what she saw. Her hair had silver streaks throughout it, and she watched horrendously as another streak slowly appeared. She blinked a few times, shook her head and rubbed her eyes, but looked back and found her hair still silver. How was she going to go to school? Her eyes flashed yellow and then turned light green. "STOP THAT!" she shouted to her reflection, breathing very shallowly, beginning to hyperventilate. "VERDAMMT!" she added, slumping onto her bed.  
  
"Sabrah Freud! I don't want to hear that again!" her mother called out from somewhere in the house. "Is that cat bothering you again?" she asked. Sabrah took a deep breath, and answered with calmness she couldn't believe she was achieving, "No, it's not the kaetzchen... There's just so many knots..." She felt guilty for lying to her mother, but figured that her mother would think she was crazy if she said, "Oh—no, it's not the kitten—its all because my hair's turning silver and I think I might be inhabited by a demon!"  
  
"Well—do you need me to help you with it?" her mother asked. Sabrah could hear soft footsteps coming down the hall.  
  
"No, mother, I'm fine..." she called out, now beginning to panic, stress audible in her voice. "Well, okay leibling..." her mother said quizzically.  
  
Sabrah tied her hair back into a ponytail, then pinned it to her head, covering the whole silver-brown-curly-straight mix with a hat. She then changed into a pair of jeans and a nice white shirt before leaving the room. When she was just out her door, she glanced at the time. She was almost late for school.  
  
~ HOW CAN I THINK ABOUT SCHOOL WHEN MY HAIR IS TURNING SILVER AND MY EYES ARE TURNING YELLOW?!?!?!??!?!?!~ She shouted inside her own head. Almost as if sensing her frustration, her father looked up at her. "All that stress from combing your hair? Maybe we should let her cut it, Miriam..." he said to his wife as he continued to look at Sabrah with furrowed eyebrows. Her mother smiled— Sabrah had been asking for months, and her father wouldn't let her. "Maybe..." was all she would say.  
  
At any other time, Sabrah would have been ecstatic, but she wasn't in a very happy mood at the moment. Her mind was too busy reeling.  
  
"Wow... That can't be just from her hair—can it?" she heard her father say as she walked past him. She looked back at him and said, "Ahm, yes, it is." He stared at her, now even more confused. "What, kitten? I didn't say anything..."  
  
"She's been acting strange all morning... What's all this about?" he said again, though this time his lips didn't move. Sabrah took a deep breath, forced a fake smile onto her face. She heard some more dialogue, but didn't dare turn back. She began running, and was halfway down the road when her mother got to the doorway, looking sideways out it and watching her run. "All I asked was if she wanted fish tonight..." her mother said to her father, now more confused than ever...  
  
She ran all the way to school, and sat down at her desk, feeling somewhat exhausted (and a bit cleansed).  
  
"Good morning class, "the teacher said, clasping her hands together. Sabrah almost gagged in disgust. The teacher acted like one of those little anime characters, always doing those fake smiles, and being real cutesy.  
  
"Guten tag..." Sabrah offered viciously as the other students all replied in English.  
  
"Sabrah... English please. And take off that hat!" the teacher said. Sabrah panicked as the class watched. Finally, after 30 seconds of sitting and doing nothing, she got up and ran out of the room, running around the school until she found a bathroom. She sat in the bathroom, huffing piteously, her panic threatening to overtake her. 10 minutes later, she heard a voice—one of the teachers. "Sabrah? Are you in there?" the teacher called out sweetly.  
  
"That little snot. Running out of a classroom, causing a scene..." the teacher continued viciously, and Sabrah furrowed her eyebrows. "I'll have her expelled for this... She's always causing trouble..." Sabrah quickly put her feet on the toilet and waited for the teacher to leave. "Sabrah? Please come out. Where are you?" the woman called out sweetly, almost making Sabrah gag.  
  
Was that lady nuts? Did she really think that Sabrah would come out after what she had been saying? "Well, the girl can rot in here for all I care." Sabrah curled her lip in disgust, and listened as the woman left the bathroom, the door closing noisily behind her. Sabrah breathed a sigh of relief as she stood up. She walked to the mirror, taking her hat off. Her hair was almost completely silver, much to her dismay.  
  
What was happening to her? It was as if some kind of—demon—had decided to torment her... Maybe she was possessed. Then again—if she was possessed, would she be wondering if she was possessed? Or maybe the demon would want her to wonder if wondering made her un-possessed because then she wouldn't know she was being possessed and would leave the demon to it's own riles? Or maybe she was just going nuts. That was the most likely of them all. Or this was a dream—even more likely. In a few minutes, she'd wake up, and her life'd be back to normal, and she'd be normal again....  
  
She pinched herself, and when she felt her nails digging into her skin, she sighed resolutely. Okay—so it wasn't a dream... Heck—it was worth a try. She stared in the mirror a bit more, sighing. She must have slept awfully the other night, because her whole backbone hurt like crazy... She reached behind herself to rub her back, and looked back up at the mirror in alarm. She brought her hand down, feeling her backbone, until finally she gasped. Was that---- she turned around, struggling to see her back in the mirror. She gasped again, lifting up her shirt, and finding the beginnings of a tail forming. "Verdammt... Verdammt—I'm so screwed! Why is happening to me?" she began hysterically. "VERDAMMT!"  
  
That's what it was—she was condemned. She was absolutely, utterly condemned, and for some reason, God or Fate or Whatever was deciding to play some huge, cruel joke on her. What—would she sprout horns next? She instantly took back the thought, not wanting to think it and have it suddenly be there. What was she going to do? She couldn't do anything like this! She was—she had a tail, if that's what it was going to be. What else could it be? Of course it was a tail! How could it not be a tail? How long would it get? Would she sprout fur or something stupid? Would she turn blue, or red?  
  
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Then she laughed. Who in the world was she kidding? Why should she be calm? SHE HAD A TAIL!!!  
  
She sighed again. She would wait it out, she would wait for school to be over, then she'd go home, and she'd tell her parents everything. Then, they would go out, and they would buy hair dye, and they would cut off her tail, and then life would be normal again. Wait a second. CUT OFF HER TAIL?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Was she crazy? Wait—she had already admitted that fact. She was crazy—this was all just a really strange dream, and any moment she'd wake up normal again.  
  
Any moment.  
  
Any moment now.  
  
Any moment at all.  
  
Okay—she could wait a few more minutes for the moment to come. She was going to wake up, and the tail'd be gone.  
  
Then she got bored with waiting. It had been more fun to sit there and panic than it was to wait until she woke up. Okay—she'd play along until the dream was over—that's what she'd do.  
  
She'd wait, and she'd play along, and pretend she didn't know, (or at least hope,) that this was all a dream...  
  
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Some hours later—(it felt like years and years,) she heard the school bell ring. She got into a stall, and quickly hid her (now 3 foot long) tail by wrapping it around her right leg and covering it over with her jeans. As she left the school, no one paid any attention to the silver-haired girl that rushed past them all, (much to her relief,) so she was quickly out of the building and on her way home.  
  
When she was home, her father was on the front steps waiting for her, her mother probably in the kitchen. When he saw her, his eyes gave away no sign of recognition, and her furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as she headed towards her house.  
  
"Now who's this?" she heard, and his lips didn't move. Now—if any of this stuff stopped, that was what she wanted it to be. She wanted the voices out of her head. There was an undercurrent of people not near her, either voices, or thoughts, or spirits—whatever they were. She sighed, looking to her father. "Father?" she asked, looking at him. "It's Sabrah—something weird's happened! You've got to help me fix it!" Her father stared at her like she was crazy, saying, "What kind of treachery is this? Go away—I'm waiting for my daughter. Don't even try and pretend— you don't even look like her."  
  
"Father!" Sabrah said, hurt. Could he really not recognize her? Was she really that different? Did she really look that different? Her father stared at her coldly, a look of anger in his eyes. "I don't have time for such games, "he said, beginning to grow impatient. Her mother appeared at the door, and gasped at what she saw. Sabrah was puzzled, as her mother happily said, "Come right in, dear. We'll fix you up something real quick!"  
  
"Not her! Not my Sabrah! Is this some kind of curse I've given her?" she heard her mother 'say', her mouth not moving, and that same look of glee on her face, though Sabrah herself could feel distress radiating off of her like—she didn't know what.  
  
"I will hear of no such thing! This—this demon—claims to be our daughter. I won't have her sit at our table after such lies!" her father said  
  
Her mother's eyes were pleading, but Sabrah realized with a shock that her father's mind was already made. Tears began to stream down her face, and her mother's. "How about this? If you are my daughter, with pointed ears and yellow eyes and silver hair—obviously you've made a deal with the devil! If you are my daughter, I disown you!"  
  
Sabrah was absolutely struck. She couldn't breath, she couldn't think. It felt like someone had shoved a dagger into her lungs and laughed as the blood dripped down. Her father—he had disowned her? That was it then. She was—she was screwed. She knew now that it couldn't be a dream—this emotional hurt—these feelings she was feeling—she felt too bad for this to be a dream...  
  
There was a look of total shock and horror on her face, but eventually, Sabrah turned around. She heard her father walk inside the house, and she closed her eyes tightly. Her mother lingered on the stairs, and Sabrah could *swear* she could feel her mother tugging at the ends of her mind. Her mother knew it was her. Maybe— the purple hands, the silver hair— it all made sense! Her mother had been possessed, and it had been passed down to Sabrah by relation.  
  
Okay— so it didn't make sense— but it was all Sabrah had to go on for now... The alternative was a lot worse— she was a mutant. She began to walk away, her mind reeling. Where would she go? What would she do? If her own father didn't recognize her, would her teachers? A fellow student? She doubted it. She shook her head, trying to clear herself of all thoughts, and began walking down the road— not towards any particular place— just walking...  
  
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She walked a few miles that night, but came back to her house. By the time she reached it, it was just past midnight, and clouds were gathering in the sky— a foreshadowing of the rain to come. She walked around it once, looking in at the forms of her sleeping parents, giving them one last silent goodbye. She then began around again, but came to rest at the window to her own room. She tried to pull up on it, but finding it locked, she just stared at it.  
  
She was in total mind-numbing confusion, her mind still reeling from the disowning of less than ten hours ago. As she stared at the things in her room, she suddenly lost all caring. She quickly broke the window, pulling back at the wood and the screen, not even noticing the sharp pieces of glass that jutted out from the sides and cut at her arms and hands. She climbed inside, and ran to her own door, locking it. It seemed that no one had awoken, but she wanted to make sure. She grabbed her backpack and emptied it, putting a few things back in as she deemed necessary, and grabbed other miscellaneous things, placing it inside. She put a few outfits in it, a sheet, and her harmonicas, and then looked up at a short, high-pitched noise. Her little kitten sat in front of her, it's head cocked to the side slightly.  
  
Recognition formed in Sabrah's eyes, and just as suddenly, the pain in her arms began. She closed her eyes tightly, shutting out the pain, reaching out to her kitten. "Do you want to come?" she whispered hoarsely. The little kitten only mewed, looking to the door. Someone was slamming on it. Sabrah said, "Just come with me a little of the way, Kaetzchen? Please?" she scooped up the kitten in her arms, her own blood soaking into the kitten's warm fur. She shoved her backpack out the window, then climbed out herself. The last thing she ever saw in her house was her mother's face. For a second, they both stared at eachother, tears streaming down their faces, but finally, her mother said, "Goodbye, my little Sabrah..." and Sabrah herself turned around.  
  
Thus, she began her second walk to nowhere as the rain began to pound onto her back. She shielded the little kitten with her own body, even as the rain turned dreadful. After about a mile, she climbed up in a tree, and began to talk to the little kitten, trying to keep it from getting wet. They watched the sun come up, and the rain begin to slow. Sabrah was to tears, and when it stopped, she climbed down the tree and let the little kitten go, sobbing. "Go home, my kaetzchen. Find mother and father and tell them I'm sorry..."  
  
From there on, the cat and her went their separate ways. 


	2. Electricity and Recruits

***(Two years after Chapter one...)  
  
Charles Xavier walked away from Cerebro; the beginning of a headache already started. He had found quite an ensemble of mutants-- twins in England with totally different powers, a boy in Louisiana that could control electricity, a small boy in China who could travel by bending light and shadows, and too many more to count. But the one that was bothering him most, the reason he had been at Cerebro so long-- was a girl in England of 15 years of age. She was a broadcasting and receiving empathic, and also had some telepathic abilities, but they were very weak, even for someone just receiving them. The girl had to have another untapped power that hadn't awoken yet, or hadn't been in use, one he hadn't been able to discern. He had, however, noticed her physical mutations on the numerous occasions over the past two years she had been a mutant. She was born in Germany, and walked her way to England, and seemed to be taking a rest there for now. Xavier sighed deeply.  
  
He knew people who had had physical mutations since birth-- he even had one on his 'team', his X-men. Kurt had learned to deal with it, for the most part, at an early age. But for others-- those whose physical mutations came later-- normally at puberty-- he could only guess how traumatizing that must be. Sure-- since the girl was a broadcasting empath, he had received some of those feelings, but in a very minor degree. He could only guess what it must be like at full-blown strength. It wasn't like he hadn't been depressed before-- far from it. He just had to feel pity on any poor soul who had tasted 'normalcy', and could never go back.  
  
He shook his head, trying to shake away the 'cobwebs' that had begun to gather at the back of his mind, and when he looked up, he saw Scott standing in front of him, an amused expression on his face. How long had he been there? The professor couldn't help but wonder as he said, "Good morning Scott."  
  
"I was wondering when you'd see me...," Scott said, shaking his head. "You were in there for quite a while. Are you going anywhere this morning?"  
  
The Professor began to move down the hallway, followed by Scott. "Tell Mr. Lebeau that you and him need to get the jet ready. I want you two to pick up a boy in Louisiana. He turned into lightning last month, and has been using his powers for some slightly insidious purposes. I'll give you the coordinates when you're ready. Oh, and Scott?"  
  
Scott turned around—He had already been on his way to get Gambit. "Yes?"  
  
"Keep Remy away from the casinos, please?"  
  
"Sure, professor," Scott said, smiling and nodding as he headed on his way.  
  
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Remy was standing in the kitchen, cooking some dish or another at the stove and talking to Annie, the 'school nurse', and Jean-Paul, (Northstar) when Scott came in.  
  
"Get ready— the Professor wants us to go pick up someone," Scott said, as Remy's eyes lit up. (Or as much as his blood-red eyes could.)  
  
"So da 'Fessor realize Remy's been bored round here, non? 'Kay— Remy be ready in bit," Gambit said, and both of them left the room, leaving a baffled Northstar to watch over the cooking food. Annie gave Jean-Paul a slightly mocking look, and joked, "Well—? It's about time you started pulling your weight around this mansion..."  
  
Jean-Paul rolled his eyes at the nurse. "Hahah. So very funny..." he said, glancing hopelessly to the door and absently stirring the food...  
  
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The lights were flashing and the alarms sounding as a boy said, "Bingo." He pulled his hand back from the machine, and quickly put a glove on, then readied his cup for the stream of coins that began pouring out. The sixteen- year-old was standing in one of the casinos in New Orleans, smiling happily as he began to count the money. "M'ands 'aven't failed me yet," he said in a Cajun-accented voice, before he lowered his head, suddenly cursing softly. The pure white hair on the back of his head was standing up, thanks to static electricity, and his pale blue eyes had yellow 'bolts of lightning' racing throughout them. One of the more unfortunate side effects of his powers. Added to the fact that lightning was constantly attracted to him and one touch of his skin on someone elses was enough to knock almost anyone unconscious.  
  
Some of the pluses? He had basic control of the electricity of any machinations or buildings around him— all he had to do was shove his finger in a socket, or put his hand on a machine. He also could access most computers with his mind, dial on cell phones without having to actually touch them— party tricks mostly, at least in his own opinion. He lived entirely off of energy— most of which he could get from the air— and normal food wasn't necessary.  
  
He was also an excellent computer hacker.  
  
So— he had just made the slot machine he was standing at give three sevens, (he was quite glad that this casino used the newer electronic versions instead of actual slot machines,) but now the rest of the electricity in his body was acting up. He sighed, taking the rest of his the coins as they fell out, ignored the looks of jealousy from the rest of the inhabitants of the casino, and headed towards the bathroom.  
  
***(Meanwhile...)  
  
At the other side of the casino, Scott sighed. Keep Remy away from the casino— yeah right! How was he supposed to do that, especially when the coordinates Xavier gave him lead directly to one? ~Keep him away from the casinos...~ he thought dryly.  
  
Meanwhile, the Cajun was eyeing the poker tables with a renowned interest. How were they ever going to figure out which person they were picking up? And how'd a sixteen-year-old get into a casino, anyway? Didn't they have an age limit or something? Couldn't hurt to play a few rounds of poker while Scott was looking... Remy began to feel around his pockets, looking for money, but felt a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Remy...," Scott said warningly, sighing. "Just keep looking!" he continues, a look of exasperation on his face, to which the Cajun replied with a happy grin...  
  
The white haired boy made his way from the bathroom, his hair mostly flat. He headed straight towards Remy and Scott, or rather towards the poker table, brushing slightly past the both of them.  
  
"Woah...," Scott said, glancing at his arm. All the hair was standing on end, and Gambit's hair was a bit more frizzy than usual. Static electricity. Remy and Scott watched as the boy sat down at the poker table, and Remy flashed Scott a 'hahah' look as he sat down next to the kid. Scott watched idly as the game began to unfold, not really wanting to spend his money. So this kid was their mutant? Not much to look at. Pale skin, white hair, pale blue eyes...  
  
The boy in question sighed as the cards were dealt. It was nice to find a game that he couldn't cheat on— at least with his powers. He usually always had a few 'tricks' up his sleeve either way. Between the four people and the dealer playing the game of poker, he was glad to say it was coming pretty close between him and Remy. He had always prided himself at the fact that just because he *could* cheat didn't mean he had to. As the third batch of cards was dealt, the boy flashed Remy a dazzling-white-teeth smile.  
  
"Name's Jaccob Babeaux," he said to Remy, and there was just enough hitch to his voice to get Scott's senses going. He furrowed his eyebrows behind his 'glasses'.  
  
Remy only smiled at the look on Scott's face, then said, "D'name's Remy Lebeau, but you can call me Gambit." Scott's eyebrows only furrowed more.  
  
The people laid down their cards, and Scott sighed. Well— it didn't look like Remy had too much competition. 3 aces from the dealer, a spade straight with an 8 high, a full house with a ten high. Nothing too impressive.  
  
"Full house, king high," Jaccob said showily as he laid down his cards, flashing the people at the table a huge grin. Remy looked disappointed as he laid down his own cards slowly. Then his face erupted into one of his charming Cajun grins as he revealed his ace high royal straight flush. Scott had to smile at the shocked look on the kid's face. Gambit was almost as good a card player as he was a thief. He just hoped that Gambit hadn't cheated.  
  
"Y'haven' changed a bit, Remy," the boy said as they both got up from the table.  
  
"You haven' either— Remy still beats you like it not'in'," Remy answered in reply, as the boy stuck out his tongue. Amused at the look on Scott's face Remy said, "I know da boy— he be Remy's cousin somewhere on down on da line." He then looked at Jaccob.  
  
"'Bout why Scott and Remy're 'ere..."  
  
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So, the three of them talked. Jaccob was relatively open to the idea of going somewhere to learn about his abilities— when they had first manifested a year ago, he had turned into a ball of lightning, destroying half of his small town and killing his parents. He'd been evading the law and the child services since then. If Xavier could get everyone off his back, (including the Friends of Humanity, and the Church of Humanity, while we're on the case,) then it was well worth it. So, they were off, Scott and Remy bringing the boy to the X-Jet, where Scott decided it was a good time to lay down a few of the basic rules.  
  
"Look. I'm not taking any chances here. You're related to him," at this point he jabbed a thumb in Remy's direction, who in turn began playing with his deck of cards, "So I know at some point there's going to be some trouble."  
  
Usually it would be Logan giving this talk. He'd lay down the basics for now, and Logan could properly intimidate the kid later.  
  
"No sending lightning balls, or whatever you do at any of the students or teachers. Some of the less well tempered ones," that was putting it lightly, "Might send something right back at you. No draining the mansion of it's power if it can be at all avoided, etcetera, etcetera." He then glanced back at the boy, removing his eyes from piloting the plane.  
  
"So what exactly is it you can do?" he asked.  
  
"Da plane—," Jaccob began nervously, and Scott smiled, turning back around.  
  
"Ahm... I can c'trol 'lectricity. I can turn into lightnin'. I can shoot off lightnin' balls. I can control 'lectronics. I can access most computers and cell phones from 10 feet away. I can manipulate information in almost any computer, laptop, E-T-C," Jaccob began, starting off his spiel.  
  
Scott shook his head. So— he *would* leave it to Logan. The professor would undoubtedly want to speak to him as soon as they got there. "Look— the Professor'll give you all the rules, not just the basics, when we get there, so I'll leave it up to him."  
  
Jaccob, however, didn't seem to care about this latest news. He was turning green, (almost literally,) and mumbling to himself.  
  
Remy sighed, shaking his head and handing the boy a plastic bag...  
  
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***(Later at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning...)  
  
Jaccob had went straight to the med lab after getting off the plane, and, much to the relief of the other passengers, he hadn't actually thrown up.  
  
"Looks like we'll have to get you some air legs...," Annie, the (relatively) new nurse, said to him. She'd only been there for a little while— she had wanted to come there to take care of Alex, but the professor had offered her a full time opportunity as the 'school nurse'.  
  
Jaccob only moaned pathetically. "Don' be mention'n the words air, airplane, jet, or anyt'ing like dat, or I swear I will be t'rowin' up on you..." Of course, he didn't eat that much, so there wouldn't be that much food, but it would still be gross. Jaccob wasn't sure if there'd be electricity throughout it either. He was sitting on the edge of one of the cots, Annie looking at him humorously. She bent down to wipe away a strand of hair, and he winced away, holding up his fingers. What looked like pure electrons connected his fingers, giving off a bright yellow glow. "I'm not safe," he said, looking away.  
  
She smiled at him, but moved away. She could tell when someone wanted to be alone. The professor was standing at the door, and walked in. He sat down in a chair next to Jaccob, then handed him a pair of gloves.  
  
"Wha's dis for?" Jaccob asked, looking at the gloves. The seemed to be made out of some kind of rubber.  
  
"Put them on. They should make you 'safe' as you call it. They'll also keep you from turning into lightning when you don't want to," the Professor began, looking at the boy. He was already eagerly putting them on.  
  
"What are dey?" Jaccob inquired, as he looked at them, flexing his fingers a bit. Very flexible, actually surprisingly so for rubber, if that's what they were.  
  
"They're a kind of rubber," Xavier began, "Engineered slightly to take in high rates of electricity without being so thick that you can't move your fingers. The gloves should absorb all of your excess energy. I will say, though, you're going to have to resume normal eating habits. We can't have you sucking the mansion's power all the time."  
  
Jaccob looked at Xavier in an appraising manner. Xavier had just went up a few notches in Jacob's scheme of things... This guy was king of the roost— he laid down the rules and expected them to be followed. Definitely the kind of guy he could respect, if not look up to... He was also looking forward to being able to be without his powers— to be able to feel people again— to be able to hold someone's hand, or link arms, or whatever...  
  
Xavier, feeling his point had gotten across, smiled and walked away, leaving the boy to his own thoughts...  
  
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***(One year later...)  
  
Early one summer morning at the X-Mansion, though breakfast had barely started, one of the students was already well into trouble.  
  
Jaccob was perspiring slightly as he leaned against the wall next to the elevator, removing his glove. "One, two, three, four, five..."  
  
He put his hand on the wall next to the elevator, calling the electricity of the mansion to him. Moments later, the lights went out and the elevator groaned to a stop. Screams could be heard from inside, and Jaccob, glowing slightly from the large amounts of electricity he was taking in, said, "Who be in dere?"  
  
"I 'be in here', you dolt! Me and Jubes and Paige," came Stacy's angry voice. Jaccob winced. "Damnit, you're like a junkie! Let us up! The professor told you not to drain—," she continued.  
  
"Sorry, petites...," he called down guiltily, removing his hand from the wall and putting his glove back on. Seconds later, the lights sputtered back on, and the elevator came back to life, beginning it's ascent up. Hey— wasn't the elevator going *down* before?  
  
Then Jaccob ran. He definitely did not want to be there when and if the girls came up...  
  
***(Five minutes later...)  
  
He was breathing very heavily as he came out of the stairwell, (having wisely chosen not to take the elevator...), and was practically asthmatic when he reached the cafeteria.  
  
Raising a cautious eyebrow, Bobby Drake sighed. The kid had a worse rep than he did... "That was you, wasn't it, Static...," he asked, but Jaccob only offered a wry grin as he put his glove back on. Suddenly, the professor's head was in front of him.  
  
"Jaccob..." he began, "I understand that you feel you need the electricity, but couldn't you warn us first? You've been doing this every month without, and I'm frankly getting tired of it." Jaccob backed up a step, chagrined by the professor's tone. "Yes sir..." he said to the floating head.  
  
***(Meanwhile)  
  
The professor, sitting in his office, turned his attention back to Kurt and Warren. Warren Worthington III, also known as Archangel, stood roughly in front of the professor, his wings slightly stretched out in back of him, while Kurt Wagner, (A.K.A Nightcrawler), sat in a chair right in front of the professor's desk, his tail wrapped around his feet by the floor. The professor sighed, glancing between the two of them.  
  
"Ahm— anyway, you called us?" Angel asked, putting his weight on his other leg. Kurt and him had been on their way, and had just gotten into the office when the power went out. Since then, they'd been standing, (or on Kurt's part, sitting,) around, waiting for the professor to get done chastising Static.  
  
"Ah, yes. I'd like for you two to accompany me as I approach a young girl in New York City. She's been using her powers more and more lately, and it seems that she's having trouble controlling them. I want you two to help me warm her up to the idea of the mansion, then if she seems to like it, I'll arrange a meeting with her social worker," Xavier said.  
  
Kurt shifted uneasily. He wasn't too sure that he was the best person to go recruit someone. "Are you sure it's good for me to go— Won't I sca—"  
  
"Of course I'm sure," Xavier began curtly, "I think that you going will be beneficial to us all."  
  
"Okay— where are we going?" Angel asked, sighing...  
  
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***(The day after...)  
  
Kurt, Angel, and Xavier approached the girl's small apartment, and Xavier knocked on the door. When there was no response, he knocked again.  
  
"You sure she's home?" Angel asked, then quickly shut up at the amused look on Xavier's face. He'd obviously done a mental scan. Angel knocked on the door this time, then sighed. Okay...——  
  
"Ach! I'm coming!" came a German accented voice tinged with the slightest bit of what seemed to be an *English* accent. Angel exchanged looks with Kurt, smiling a bit. So maybe that was why the Professor wanted Kurt to come along...  
  
Kurt raised an eyebrow as Angel glanced at him. The door opened a little bit, still connected to the door frame by the chain, and half of the girl's face appeared. "Was?" she asked irritably.  
  
"We wanted to talk to you. We represent a school that is particularly interested in your capabilities," Xavier said, and the girl snorted in reply. "Ja. And I'm the bloody president's wife," she said, grinning. Angel bit his lip to keep from laughing, but Xavier only replied calmly. "May we come in for a moment?"  
  
The girl shook her head, still smiling. "Sure... Vasever."  
  
She undid the chain, and opened the door fully. She then raised an eye at the three. One had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a long trench coat, the other was an older, bald man, (the one who had talked to her,) and the other was sort of slouched, his head hidden from view. "Motley bunch..." she murmured to herself.  
  
Then, Kurt un-slouched, and his very blue face came into view. The girl was about to comment, but his tail came into view. A look of shock came on her face, and as they came into her apartment, she whispered to them, "Verdammt! He's got a bloody tail!" 


	3. Blue Person and Recruiting

Trusting In Shadows Chapter Three  
  
(Most of the stuff in here is mine; everything except for the idea of mutants... hehe! And then at the end, the X-men aren't mine, but Jaccob is.)  
  
(Pay attention— this is a year after chapter one, and two years before the end of chapter two!!!)  
  
In the year since she left home, Sabrah had reached England. She stayed away from other people and major cities, only going in to buy or steal food and clothes. One late night, though, as she neared an orphanage, she realized she hadn't paid close enough attention.  
  
"Well, hello, there..." said one of the two red-haired, green-eyed twins standing in front of Sabrah. "M'name's Victoria, and this here's Rebekah. Nice to meet you— What are you doing out so late?"  
  
Sabrah was taken aback, and she silently cursed herself for not paying attention. "I am the Dämon..." she growled, using the German word for 'Demon'. Her eyes flashed yellow and then a bright green. The look that appeared on Victoria's face was so comical that Sabrah had to laugh. Rebekah, however, shoved her hand out, undaunted.  
  
" 'Ello, Daemon," she said, trying to say 'Dämon', but her accent slurring the word so much that it came out different. Sabrah's lips curled slightly in an almost unnoticeable smile. As Sabrah smiled, Victoria's face came into focus.  
  
"Ey— Rebekah! She's a bloody one of us! I s'pose that— Daemon— I s'pose that's a codename!" Victoria seemed pretty excited, as she turned to look at her sister. This time, it was Victoria's turn to laugh at the look on Sabrah's face. "That's okay— your secret's safe with us! Forget Victoria! Call me Vi! I also go by Fusion. Y'see, I can separate my own or any other person's molecules. Then, I can travel over great distances, or I can fuse me and anyone else together. This also works with inanimate objects, thought it looks pretty awful..." she said, then realized she was babbling.  
  
"Call me Red. I used to go by Reb, but people didn't think that sounded right. I can pour my energy into stuff— trees, people, anything— and give them extra energy. Sometimes, like with a tree— I can make it grow fast. If I do it with Sara, I can let her meld us really well, and it's just bloody awesome!" the other one said, as Sabrah still stood dumbfounded, "So— what can you do?"  
  
Sabrah lowered her eyebrows. "Do? One of you? What do you mean? Are you possessed like me?" she asked, her eyes widening.  
  
"Possessed? Hah— not likely! We're mutants, dear. You know— we grew different than most, 'cause our parents have funny genes. Mutants. Short for 'Mutated folks with funny abilities'. All mutants have powers, " Rebekah continued. She couldn't believe that Sabrah didn't know what a mutant was.  
  
Sabrah only sighed. So— she wasn't possessed— she was just a freak? She didn't know if that was much better. Why hadn't she thought of that before? Well— she had, but she hadn't wanted to admit it. Mutants were on the news all the time, and they were always feared and hated. She wasn't sure how being a half-demon was better than that, but heck. She then thought hard. All mutants had powers— she suddenly looked up.  
  
"I can read minds. And feel feelings. And they're never mine— always everyone elses. That's why I stay away from towns," she said.  
  
But that doesn't include my physical mutations... Sabrah thought suddenly. The thoughts and feelings weren't the only reason she stayed away from towns. She could just imagine the whole 'torch and pitchfork' scene if she ever really went into a town.  
  
"Well— can you do it with me? Try it! I don't know, try putting you hands over my face or something. Try and enter just my mind." Rebekah said, her eyes raised a bit. Sabrah was a bit hesitant about this. What if it didn't work, and she was just being stupid? Sighing resolutely, she nodded. "Ach. Allright. Try sitting."  
  
Rebekah's eyes lit with happiness. Sabrah was a bit confused when she felt the sudden rush of emotions. Rebekah was happy— she had a friend. Apparently, the girl didn't have a very happy life. Sabrah smiled hesitantly, feeling a bit of the deep depression that threatened endlessly to swallow her lift. Rebekah sat down, and then Sabrah followed, as Victoria watched with interest. Sabrah took Red's advice, placing her hands around the girl's face and closing her eyes tightly.  
  
Almost instantaneously, 'she' was standing in front of some kind of doorway. She reached out and pulled on the doorknob, and it gave way. She walked into the next room and found herself in a hallway full of more doors. She opened a few, and was instantly in one of Rebekah's memories. As she opened more and more doors, she quickly found out a lot about the twins. They're parents had died when they were only 5, and they had been living in an orphanage ever since. They had a lot of money waiting for them in a trust fund for when they turned 21.  
  
Rebekah was about to open another door, when she saw something that amazed her. Farther down the hallway, there was a glowing black orb, taller than 'she' was. She walked towards it, and felt a little resistance, but fought against it, and she was soon right by it. She stared at it for a bit, and suddenly, she was copying it. She memorized every detail of it, and soon realized that this was the girl's 'center'— her powers, her personality, her looks... She loved computers, and she knew that she had just stolen a page right out of its book— she was copying the girl's power. She knew how to use it— and she would, as soon as she got out.  
  
She opened her eyes, and she was instantly out. The grass around them was growing wildly, but stopped about half a minute later. All three girls were wide-eyed.  
  
"You— you started up my power while you were in there... You weren't in there for more than 2 minutes..." Rebekah said, her eyebrows lowered, confusion in her voice. Sabrah reached out her own hand and touched Rebekah. She felt a warm glow underneath her fingertips, and saw some kind of blue light pass between them.  
  
"You got my power!" Rebekah then said, her eyes wide. Victoria laughed. "Well, she obviously didn't steal it, so don't worry about it. We need to get back to the orphanage—we're going to be in trouble something awful— Do you want to come, Daemon? They wouldn't ask questions..."  
  
Sabrah's eyes widened. An orphanage... She could go there— just for a little while— until she could figure out where to go next. And maybe the girls could help her with her powers! "Ach— I guess..."  
  
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(Now, we're roughly 2 and a half years past Chapter One, and 6 months before the end of chapter two! ^_^)  
  
And so, she followed the other two to the orphanage.  
  
In the year and a half she stayed, she made frequent visits to Red's mind, but always stayed away from the black orb. The power wore off after a week, but she didn't want to do anything like that— at least not for a while. Victoria was resistant to letting Sabrah into her mind at all, so Sabrah didn't push it. They helped her learn how to shield, and they soon developed latent telepathic and empathic abilities of their own— the three, no matter how far apart, (or so it seemed,) could always travel on the thread that connected them and talk. They knew what eachother were feeling, even on opposite sides of the orphanage, and knew when another was hurt. They frequently called eachother by their 'codenames' and grew to be best of friends. Sabrah even reluctantly showed them her physical mutations. They got her dark brown contacts, and she let her hair grow out so that it covered her ears. And she continued to tuck her tail into pants. The orphanage was becoming increasingly frustrated with her refusal to wear skirts.  
  
The twins, however, were becoming increasingly alarmed with some of Daemon's oddities. She was becoming more and more of a 'neat freak' and becoming an 'everything-phobic', as Fusion liked to put it. She did things exactly equal, and sometimes, the twins would catch her touching all of the book spines in the orphanage's small library. She always made excuses, (I'm looking for a book...), but would go back and finish with all of them.  
  
After a year and a half of this, the two of them confronted her.  
  
"You're going to America." Red said, shoving a plane ticket in her hand. Sabrah looked at it, confused. "Look, I think you'll be able to find someone there who can help you better with your mutations than we can. We're saving up money to send ourselves there, too— We'll be coming soon. But you need to leave. You need to get your stuff, and be at the airport in 3 hours. No buts— I want to see you packing." Tears were now streaming down all three of their faces. Sabrah leaned in, and all three of them began to hug, and Daemon sighed. She had always wanted to go to America but—  
  
"You're money! You've been saving forever! For me?"  
  
Fusion looked at her. "Of course. We're a quarter of the way there for ourselves. We'll be there, maybe in a year. You should go. But before you leave— I want you to copy my power. At the least, it should get you out of some tight spots, " she said, offering a watery smile.  
  
They all three sat down, and Daemon placed her hands on Fusion's face. She opened the doorway and headed straight to Fusion's power. This time, she stayed there for a long time, making sure she got every aspect of it memorized. When she opened her eyes, it was almost a half-hour later, and the two of them were in a totally different part of the building. Luckily, no one was around, and they teleported themselves back to Red.  
  
Red sighed when they and held out something else for Daemon to take. Daemon stared at it, puzzled.  
  
"It's your passport. Your new name is Hannah Smith. You're going to tell anyone who finds you in America that you can't remember your past. If we'd used your real name, people'd be able to find your parents, and you know what'd happen then. It says you've taken all your shots, too." Daemon smiled appreciatively. She hated shots in a 'lets kick the nurse to keep the needle away from me' way.  
  
Red sighed, 'receiving' this thought. Daemon was afraid of rain, for reasons she wouldn't explain, didn't like male authority figures, or female for that matter... spiders, snakes and afraid of cats, Not afraid, just don't like! Daemon said, 'listening'. The list went on and on.  
  
"You promise you will keep in touch?" Daemon asked, her eyes wide, to which Red responded, "Yes, my puppe." Daemon was about to comment on her friend's use of German, but instead took another item that was held out to her— a cell phone.  
  
"I paid for the first two months, but after that, if you want to keep it, you have to pay for it," Fusion said, smiling at Daemon, who was close to tears again. "Thank you so much! You promise I'll see you? In a year?"  
  
"Yes, Daemon..." Red was getting a little frustrated. Maybe Sabrah had only asked that question a few times aloud, but she'd definitely thought it a whole bunch. She then made a shooing motion. "You have to go now! We'll bring you to the airport, but that's when we part."  
  
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They went to the airport, dropped Sabrah off, then left. Sabrah went onto the plane, and as soon as she was allowed, she went into the bathroom. She pushed against the door when it was still partially locked, and suddenly, the door flew open, and she went forward and slammed the front of her head against the opposite wall. She had wanted to make sure it was realistic. She felt her forehead, felt the wetness of blood, and thought to herself, "Too realistic..." as she passed out.  
  
"Wh— where am I?" she asked in her German-accented-English as she woke up, 6 hours later. "Where am I? Who—? What's my name?" she was becoming increasingly hysterical as the passengers began to leave. Medics soon arrived on the scene, and she immediately quieted down at the sight of the sedative needles they were carrying. One of them got out her 'passport', and said, "German, Hannah Smith. Okay, let's get this girl in. She seems to have calmed down. So— don't like needles, huh? Well, I guess if she's really amnesiac, then anything's a start..."  
  
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(Six months later— yay! We're all caught up to chapter two now! ^_^)  
  
In the five months she had been in America, Sabrah was now actively trying to learn the (rest of the) language, and had totally transferred her 'being' to Hannah Smith. She answered only to that name, and didn't think she'd even turn around if someone actually called out, "Sabrah!" She went to an American school, and had a social worker. She lived in her own apartment.  
  
Her social worker had brought her to a psychiatrist, who had diagnosed her as an amnesiac, depressed, and slightly obsessive-compulsive. Sabrah didn't see what was wrong with any of it. She was a pretty good actress; she prided herself on that. As for depression— everyone was depressed about one thing or another! Her a little more so than others, but so what? And if obsessive-compulsiveness meant that everything in her apartment was clean all the time, then she wished that everyone was it too. (You would too if you had seen some of the apartments she had seen!)  
  
She was contemplating this as she got out the key to her apartment. She felt at the handle— the door was open. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she walked inside. She hadn't left it open, had she? She looked in the first room, the living room, and seeing nothing upset, quickly went into her own bedroom/bathroom. She quickly got her tail out of her pants, and headed for the kitchen/computer room, (the last room in her little apartment.) Maybe if there was someone in there, they'd be frightened off by her tail... And if worst came to worst, she could muster up whatever telepathic abilities she had and mind-swipe the person...  
  
When she reached the room, she was startled to find that someone actually was in there. A boy with white hair was sitting up next to her laptop, one hand held over the screen. Information was flashing over it, including her diary, and school essays. She furrowed her eyebrows— she knew him! She had been at the same school as him for the first month she had been in America, and he lived in that Xavier's boarding house thing! What was he doing here?!  
  
Suddenly, he turned towards her, and his electric lined blue eyes gazed at her fiercely. Then, his gaze quickly turned to shock at the sight of her tail, and Hannah grinned.  
  
Jaccob sighed to himself at the sight of her tail. The girl had immigrated over, and when they had been in school together, he'd accidentally transferred some of his laptop's information onto hers (that was potentially damaging to him and the Xavier Institute.) As soon as he realized it, he'd been actively searching out where she lived, and was now trying to delete all of it before the Professor got a chance to get mad at him. But unfortunately, the girl had seen him going through her diary, (Okay— so that wasn't too smart a thing on his part, but could you blame him?), so he was now definitely screwed. And now she was grinning at him like the dangnable Cheshire Cat.  
  
"Pardonn moi, chere..." he began, getting up. "Ahm— you see— When we were in school—" Jaccob began, then suddenly stopped dead. Hannah was putting some kind of partial mental block over his thoughts, and he was suddenly feeling very dizzy. He was going through an emotional roller coaster— from shocked, to surprised, to excited, to angry, to pissed, to stark raving mad, to sad, to depressed, to happy, to giddy and all around again. The girl was messing with his mind! As she approached him, he quickly reached out with an un-gloved hand, hoping to knock her out and leave.  
  
It was only pure gut instinct that saved her. Hannah fell back, and her tail grabbed his arm where it was covered with his sleeve. She forced him back into the chair, and in a matter of maybe fifteen minutes, he was tied and gagged. (But not from any lack of effort on his part— he obviously hadn't trained enough in the physical parts of self-defense at the school, he thought wistfully) She stopped her empathic assault at that time, and sighed. Then there was a knock at the door. "Verdammt!" she hissed, leaving the room. She quickly tucked in her tail, doing it in record time, (Only 3 minutes!), but the door knocked a couple more times while she did so. She quickly tied on a sweater around her waist, and went to the door.  
  
"Ach! I'm coming!" she called out, slightly annoyed. Why'd they have to come when she was about to interrogate her trespasser? She made sure the chain was still connected to the door, and then pushed her hair in front of her ears, opening it. "What?" she asked irritably.  
  
"We wanted to talk to you. We represent a school that is particularly interested in your capabilities," one of them said, an older bald man.  
  
"Ja. And I'm the bloody president's wife," she said, grinning.  
  
One of the three people grinned, but the bald man only replied, "May we come in for a moment?"  
  
Hannah shook her head, still smiling. "Sure... Whatever." She'd just have to keep them away from the kitchen!  
  
She undid the chain, and opened the door fully. She then raised an eye at the three. One had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a long trench coat, another was the aforementioned older, bald man, and the last was sort of slouched, his head hidden from view. "Motley bunch..." she murmured to herself.  
  
Then, the third person un-slouched, and his very blue face came into view. ~Oy gavalt...~ Hannah couldn't stop herself from thinking as her eyes went slightly wide. She opened her mouth to comment when his also blue tail came into view. She backed up, letting them into the house as she ferociously whispered, "Verdammt! He's got a bloody tail!" 


	4. More Mutations and Wings

***(Static and Hannah are mine, almost everything else belongs to Marvel!)  
  
"Cuts right to the chase..." Kurt mumbled sarcastically as he walked in.  
  
"Well, it's a bit hard to not noti—" Hannah began. She wasn't used to seeing blue people, but was trying especially hard to overlook it— that's what she'd want someone else to do with her...  
  
"I was being sarcastic."  
  
"Oh, were you? I couldn't tell," Hannah continued, and no one in the group could tell whether *she* was being sarcastic or not. Angel worked hard to keep a straight face, but Xavier, undaunted, sat in on of the two chairs in the first room.  
  
"Make yourself at home..." she smirked when Xavier sat down in the only chair in the front room. "I'll get some more chairs," Hannah continued. The blonde-in-the-trench coat said, "Do you have one without a back?"  
  
Hannah blinked, furrowing her eyebrows. "Sure— in my bedroom, by the mirror. Would you mind getting it for me while I get two more out of the kitchen?" The blonde-in-the-trench coat nodded, heading for her room as Hannah walked into her own kitchen, making sure neither Blue-skin nor Baldie could see her 'hostage'. She shut the door behind her and began to grab two chairs, leaving the last, (occupied by Jaccob) alone. "You be quiet. I've got people in there."  
  
Jaccob mumbled something very black both in his mind and through the gag. "That wasn't nice. You broke in, not me," Hannah chastised. "Fine!" she finally said, letting go of the chairs and undoing the gag and the scarves that were tied around his arms. "You're very lucky, mein Herr. Any other time someone breaks in, I would have let the polizei have you. You wait until the people are gone, then I'll let you out the front door. I'm sure it's because you're such a charmer."  
  
Jaccob only offered a small half-smirk, glancing at the girl, and then away. The way her eyes kept shifting to different shades of that muddled brown color really unnerved him. He was certainly glad that he had his little 'charm' ability— he didn't think the girl would have let him off if he hadn't. It wasn't the only thing he had in common with his cousin, Remy Lebeau.  
  
"Are you alright in there, Ms—" The blonde-in-the-trench coat was at the kitchen door, and he glanced between Static and Hannah.  
  
"Busted..." Static winced, grabbing his other glove from by Hannah's laptop and putting it on. "Jaccob?" asked Blue-skin incredulously, (now also standing at the door.)  
  
"You know him?! I came home and he was on my laptop reading my diary!" Hannah said, furrowing her eyebrows.  
  
"Ah— but chére, I was only glancing by—" Static began, but saw Xavier by the kitchen door now. "Ahm— she used t'g't' my school, and some of the stuff on my laptop transferred to hers— dis be important stuff I be talkin' 'bout! And I came here 'cause I was gon' delete it...." he trailed off at the look Xavier gave him.  
  
"I'll talk to you later. Please wait until after I'm done talking to Ms. Smith here, then I'll bring you to the mansion." Xavier said, sighing, and continued, "Warren, would you help her with the chairs?"  
  
Hannah huffed indignantly, then sat in a chair leisurely, and said, "Yes. Help me with the chairs."  
  
Static watched humorously, and said, "I be t'inkin' dat I won' mind dis one bein' at da mansion..." As Warren exchanged looks with Kurt, Static backed away, heading for the door.  
  
Kurt walked towards Hannah, and as Hannah's look changed from smugness to confusion, -bamf-, they were in the front room. Hannah gulped loudly, trying to keep the contents of her last meal in her stomach, vaguely smelling the scent of sulfur and brimstone. "Was vas that?" she asked in a mixture of German and English.  
  
"First, let us introduce ourselves," the bald guy said to her, taking a seat in one of the chairs. Warren sat down in the back-less one he had retrieved from her bedroom, and Blue-Skin also took a chair. After a moment, Static also sat down. She was a little freaked out— she had been in the kitchen, and now, she was in the living room— that didn't compute. She took a deep breath as the other began introducing themselves.  
  
"First of all, I'm Charles Xavier, of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, also known as the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning." So— the bald guy was Xavier...  
  
"Warren Worthington the third," the blonde-in-the-trench coat said, smiling and giving her a nod. She smiled back. "Hey— wait. Warren Worthington as in Worthington Enterprises? Wow— be glad my social worker isn't here... I thought you were supposed to have wings," Hannah said calmly, the same way she might say it was about to rain. Her social worker, Cheryl Stone, not only had an aversion to mutants, but she owned roughly 2,000 shares of Worthington stock that was going downhill.  
  
Hannah then said, "Never mind..." Next to him, on the floor, was a solitary white feather.  
  
"Kurt Wagner." This was blue-skin. He reached forward, extending a three- fingered hand. Woah— okay— three fingers there... People don't have three fingers! Hannah took a deep breath, took his hand, smiled, and said, "Herr Wagner," with a smile and an inclined head. "And I'm Hannah Smith, as I'm sure you know..." She took her hand back, but not before mumbling something about, "Fuzzy."  
  
Kurt 'blushed' slightly, unnoticed by the others, and listened as Xavier began his little recruiting speech. "As I said, I represent the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, and I'd be honored to have you as a student."  
  
Hannah raised an eyebrow. "What is it that I have in common with Mr. Kleptomaniac over here?" Static huffed. "I wasn't stealing, I was—" Xavier held a hand up. "Well, Jaccob here, or Static as we like to call him, can control electricity. In fact, he needs it to survive. Kurt Wagner can teleport, traveling through an entirely different dimension and appearing in this dimension up to about a mile away almost instantaneously, as he did with you and the chair."  
  
"Yes, I remember that. That was pleasant..."Hannah murmured sarcastically...  
  
Then, it all clicked. These people knew she was a mutant. It was like her worse nightmare come true... "Mein Gott im himmel..." she murmured softly, taking a few deep breaths.  
  
"Yes, Hannah. We know you're a mutant. I would like for you to come to the school so we can help you better control your abilities. Could you please list them off? I was able to detect your empathic and telepathic abilities, but I know there are more," Xavier said.  
  
"Oh, Gott," Hannah said, largely ignoring Xavier.  
  
"Look, Hannah," Jaccob began, ignoring a sharp look from Xavier, "I've been living dere for a year now, and I ain't dead, and I don't be on some operatin' table havin' experiments done on me, so I think it's safe to say you can trust Xavier..."  
  
"Oh, yeah. That helped," Angel said to Kurt, who only smiled in return.  
  
"Can't argue with that... That's some ironclad logic," Hannah said softly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She was still pretty freaked. "Fine. You know where I live anyway..."  
  
"Telepathism, empathism, cell-separation and all of the fun stuff that comes with that..."  
  
"Yes, go on," Xavier prodded.  
  
"Well, I could demonstrate. Can I use you as an example?" she asked Kurt.  
  
"Me?" Kurt asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "You're the closest to my physique."  
  
"Wait then. What do you mean?" Xavier asked. He knew about the tail, but figured it was best for Hannah to come out with it. Sighing, Hannah pulled up her right pant leg, revealing the diamond shaped, flat end of her tail. "He's got a dagger, and I've got a diamond, but I don't think that'll matter," she began, then stopped. Her tail flushed a deep purple color, and then was back to it's normal pinkish.  
  
"That's been happening a lot lately. All over— not just on my tail. I've also been noticing some strange protuberances on my back— they fade in and out, they'll be here on day and gone the next. Hurts like crazy. The only thing I can think of is more mutations, but I certainly hope that isn't the case."  
  
Xavier only nodded, digesting the information. Angel however, was concerned, and said, "Ahm— may I feel?" Hannah was a bit taken aback by this request, but shrugged, turning around and saying, "Sure." Angel walked over to her, feeling her shoulder blades. Her shoulder blades were sticking out a lot more than was normal, but it was just enough to not be that noticeable through her clothing.  
  
"There's another set down lower," Hannah said. Angel raised his eyebrows, moving his hands down lower. There was another set of the identical protuberances. They were hard— like bone. "Wings..." Angel murmured softly, mostly unheard by all except the professor, who heard the word in thought. Angel walked away mutely, sitting down.  
  
"Don't know? I figured you wouldn't," Hannah said. Xavier turned to Kurt, saying, "Kurt, if it's alright?"  
  
Kurt nodded. "As long as she doesn't try to alter my personality or something," he said humorlessly.  
  
Hannah smiled. "Of course not!" Kurt began to say something, but Hannah was already moving her chair over, and her hands were on his face, resting just on his cheeks. Kurt blushed slightly, and Hannah murmured, "Relax..."  
  
She opened the door to his mind, and was instantly surrounded by corridors. She 'walked' around for a while, but was constantly faced with dead ends and doors. ~You have to trust me...~ She murmured, frustrated.  
  
~Sorry...~ He answered.  
  
Suddenly, there was a clear pathway, and his 'orb' was in front of her a ways. ~No need to be sorry. ~ She walked to it, and began memorizing the 'data'.  
  
***(Meanwhile)  
  
Xavier was becoming alarmed. Both of their minds were completely blocked off to him, and the two of them were teleporting erratically in place, filling the air with the noxious smell of sulfur.  
  
"Where's a fan when you need it?" Jaccob asked, sighing. He wasn't too sure what was happening. He watched in amazement as they began 'porting faster and faster in place, until they were blinking on and off. Suddenly, Hannah pulled back.  
  
She stared for a second, then said, "Oy— mein Gott!" and ran or the kitchen's trash can, promptly expelling her last meal. She wiped her face with a paper towel, and murmured to herself as she came back in.  
  
She ported back to her chair. "See? I've got his power now, and he's got his still—" she began, then abruptly stopped and Kurt screamed.  
  
"Their minds are linked, and she's experiencing terrible pain! I can't close it!" Xavier yelled to Angel, as he rushed over to Hannah, still trying to close it off. Kurt had stopped screaming now, but he was holding his head as he leaned against the chair, biting his lip.  
  
Hannah, however, fell to the floor, curling into a feral position, her knees to her chest and whimpering piteously as Kurt desperately tried to stop *feeling*.  
  
Her back was hurting worse than it ever had— unbearably so. Her skin flushed a dark violet, and her fingers and toes melted together to match Kurt's own. Then, the pain in her back doubled, and tripled, and she finally lost consciousness...  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
***(Later) Hannah awoke in a clean, starch white room on her side on some sort of hospital bed. The first thing she remembered doing was admiring how nice the room looked. Very clean. Then, the pain came back. It felt like someone had opened her back to tear out her lungs. Her fingers felt strange also— and she couldn't move them. She lifted her left hand, and gasped. She was a violet color. That she didn't mind. But the fact that she only had three fingers...  
  
"Mein Gott im himmel..." she exclaimed loudly, and fell off the bed, landing painfully on her back.  
  
"Gott..." she whimpered piteously, rolling over until she was on her side again. There seemed to be something on (or in, or coming out of) her back, but she was too weak to reach back and feel. Every bone in her body felt absolutely numb, and there was also a strange feeling in her right arm. Well— she could explain that. There was an IV needle in it.  
  
Needle... Needle... Needle... She repeated the mantra over and over in her head, then finally bit her lip in pain as she pulled it out of her arm. She watched in disgust as blood came out of the newly opened vein, and she covered it with her three-fingered hand in an attempt to stop the flow. She pulled her arms to her shirt, wiping off some of the blood. Wait— she hadn't been wearing this shirt! This was *not* her shirt! How did she get in a different shirt?  
  
~Hey, while I'm asking questions, WHERE IN HÖLLE AM I? ~ She screamed inside her head, and began taking deep breaths again. She was fairly content now to just sit and whimper. The IV must have had some sort of painkiller in it, because the pain was coming to the fore with a vengeance.  
  
"Oh, God!" someone exclaimed. Hannah pulled her legs to her chest in response.  
  
The girl was lying on the ground, curled into a ball like a child, two pairs of midnight-black wings protruding from her back. Annie, the 'school nurse' was totally speechless. Xavier had brought the girl and Kurt in to the med lab two days earlier. Kurt had been fine, he was in shock a little bit, but he had been fine. Xavier had went to recruit the girl, she had used her powers with Kurt, and had sprouted wings. The wings had grown so fast that her skin hadn't been able to stretch fast enough, and they had split her back open. She had put some stitches in the girl's back, but considering the amount of blood on the floor; they must have come out. The IV lay on the ground next to her, and the girl's wrist was bleeding. Apparently, she had woken up, freaked out, fallen off the bed and pulled the needle, and the stitches out. Annie hesitated only a moment longer, and then she bent down and attempted to pick the girl up.  
  
The girl was too heavy. She was roughly 5'11" (though you couldn't tell because she was rolled up in a ball,) and Annie couldn't lift her. The girl certainly wasn't helping— she was staying in her little ball, mumbling something in another language. (It wasn't German— Annie knew that.) She clicked the little communicator on her collar, and said, "Guys? Ahm— sleeping beauty here woke up and she's on the floor, babbling about something. I can't lift her."  
  
"I know, Annie," came Northstar's voice.  
  
"How—?"  
  
"Kurt's eyes are all glassy and he's praying— the Professor said their minds are linked. We're on our way."  
  
Hannah felt the woman try and lift her, and she made her body go limp. Once the woman left her alone, she ventured her arm to her back, and felt around. Holy— Wings. And down lower— another set of wings. She winced, pulled out a feather and looked at it, still praying to herself. It was deep, midnight black, with just the hint of the dark red of drying blood... She paused in her prayer just long enough to swear in English, and then she was back to praying.  
  
Northstar arrived at the med lab, shortly followed by Warren and Xavier. Kurt 'bamfed' himself in, taking a seat in a chair and continuing his uninterrupted flow of German prayers.  
  
"Hank should be here in a little bit— he was saying something about why the girl had to wake up during lunch— Calvasse!" Northstar exclaimed, seeing the girl curled up in a ball on the floor, blood beginning to pool out around her.  
  
"I know," was all Annie said as Warren bent down to pick her up, making sure not to crumple her pairs of wings, (which was fairly hard to do,) and set her down on the hospital bed again.  
  
"Do you want to try and heal her, Warren?" Annie asked quietly, to which Warren replied, "What blood type?"  
  
"She doesn't have one," came a deep voice from the entrance to the med lab. "She doesn't even have DNA as far as I can surmise— Her blood's almost an exact match for Kurt's, with just a few anomalies."  
  
Kurt seemed a bit taken aback by this, but Xavier only nodded. "It's a fairly new mutation as far as I can tell. While her imprinting power was 'fun' and sometimes useful, now it's become a necessity. Her body was trying to grow wings and turn violet, but it didn't have the information needed to do so. Her fingers and toes are all Kurt's though."  
  
Kurt was relieved that the poor girl's imprinting him hadn't caused *all* of her new mutations— at least not directly, and looked up when she began talking. "Will you quit talking about me like I'm not here?" she asked, practically growling at them all and weakly trying to make eye contact with Warren.  
  
"Sorry," Warren said to her, then continued to Annie, "Hook her up to the IV, and we'll try and heal her."  
  
Annie got a new needle, and walked up to the girl, and was about to put it in when the girl snapped at her, Annie drawing back in horror and just narrowly missing the girl's teeth. "You keep. That needle. Away. From. Me," she growled.  
  
"Ahm, Warren?" Annie asked nervously, still backing away from Hannah and handing Warren the needle. Northstar was *almost* amused, but walked up to the girl. "Look, child, we're trying to help you. Calvasse!" he began and then exclaimed as the girl's tail hovered dangerously close to his neck. He hadn't realized it was that long.  
  
Cain chose that particular moment to walk in. "Hah! You get him, kid," he said, laughing and sitting down to watch the show. Hannah ignored the voice that came from behind her, bringing her tail to rest on her hip, coiling it up tightly like a snake.  
  
Warren sighed, setting down the needle and grabbing a surgery blade. He shallowly cut his wrist, and said, "Hannah, I'm going to try and help you, okay?" She nodded, so he sat down in back of her on the bed and smeared his blood across her back. Hannah practically retched, though there wasn't any food in her stomach. "Gross, gross, gross," she said, but Angel was deep n thought. If her wings worked— if they supported her body weight, then she might be able to fly better than him someday, with proper training. Angel briefly recalled the time when they had met Kurt's father, and learned of the Angels and the Demons, wondering which of them the girl belonged to.  
  
His wrist began to close up, and slowly but surely, Hanna's wounds healed. After another moment, Angel got up, and Hannah attempted to prop herself up without leaning on her wings. Very hard to do, but she managed it as mostly all watched on.  
  
"Where am I? When am I?" she asked, "And who in Hölle changed my shirt while I was asleep?"  
  
Kurt laughed, cutting it short, relieved that the residual pain he had been feeling from Hannah was gone. He cut his laugh short as Beast began to talk.  
  
"Well, dear girl, you're at the Xavier Institute's med lab. You've been out for two days, and needless to say, you've got wings now."  
  
"And as for your shirt, that was me, when no one else was around, don't worry," Annie continued. "Yours was torn to shreds from your wings so Angel donated one of his altered shirts."  
  
"No wonder it's so big..." Hannah said, laughing weakly as Annie let out her breath in relief. She had thought the girl was going to get mad at her...  
  
As if sensing this emotion/thought, Hannah flashed Annie a particularly toothy grin, her canines glinting in the light...  
  
OOC: There's the first four chapters, totally revamped— I noticed that there were some typos and some inconsistencies, etc, so please review and tell me if it's better!  
  
Fifth chapter just needs to be typed and spell-checked, so it'll be up in a few days!  
  
Reb-  
  
REVIEW, OR I WILL SEND JACCOB AND WOLVERINE AFTER YOU!  
  
Okay, so I wouldn't do that, but still...  
  
Review.  
  
Please?  
  
Why are you still reading this? Review! It's right below here in a little purple box...  
  
Quit reading and review!  
  
Reb- 


	5. Logan and a Change of Clothes

***(Static, Hannah, and Chris are mine, everything else belongs to Marvel!)  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
Hannah, lying on her side, looked around the med lab as the last couple of day's events came back.  
  
Xavier had come to recruit her, she had 'copied' Kurt, sprouted wings, turned purple, lost four fingers and six toes, woken up at Xavier's, freaked out, met some people, began walking around the mansion, and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting her head and passing out.  
  
All in all, she had to say that she wasn't having a very good week.  
  
She had been talking to Angel and the boy named 'Static', (she had named him 'Spot', much to his dismay,) when one of the other students had been rushing towards the stairs that Hannah had been by. Hannah was so started by the girl's scorpion-like tail that she had stepped backwards onto air, falling down the stairs. Feeling a numbness coming from her back, she was fairly sure she had broken a bone or two in her wings.  
  
"ANNIE!" Hannah shouted, not seeing the nurse. Out of all of the people she had met, she knew about seven names. Annie's happened to be one of them. "ANNIE!"  
  
"Oh you're up?" came Annie's less-than-enthusiastic voice. Hannah heard her footsteps, and answered sarcastically, "No, I'm still sleeping."  
  
"Hey— if you'd behaved yourself and hadn't pushed yourself down the stairs, you wouldn't even be here right now," Annie pointed out.  
  
"Don't you even start with—" Hannah began, hearing a small laugh from behind her as Annie arrive in front of her. Annie looked wryly at whoever was behind Hannah.  
  
"Last I checked, Northstar, she hadn't imprinted you," Annie said. Northstar only smiled, asking, "Any lasting damage?"  
  
Annie snorted, shaking her head. "Changing the subject. No, couple of sprained joints in the wings, and one hairline fracture in the tail— I splint-ed that up, it's all we can do for now. As long as she doesn't try and hang off of anything for a week or so, she should be fine."  
  
"Fine my butt..." Hannah muttered to herself. "I need clothes. And I'm not deaf either. Don't talk about me like I'm not here."  
  
Slightly exasperated, Annie said, "Fine, Hannah. Later today, the Professor'll let you go, but right now, you need to stay off your feet, there isn't any lasting damage to your skull, but—"  
  
"Don't you get it? I'm purple! I can't go anywhere! Not now, not ever! And I need new clothes! I CANNOT wear the same clothes two days in a row, especially when they aren't mine. I mean, no offense to Angel, but I don't know what he's had on this shirt!" Hannah visibly shuddered, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down.  
  
Northstar was staring at the girl, mouth slightly open at the outburst, as Annie firmly replied, "And I'm still not letting you up. I'll tell the professor to have someone go to your apartment and retrieve your stuff." Hannah huffed, rolling over so she was facing away from Annie. Continuing in a business tone, Annie said, "You should be able to fly or hang from the ceiling in about a week."  
  
Hannah twisted her neck so she was looking at Annie again, just barely seeing her face over Hannah's own black-feathered wings.  
  
"Who said anything about flying?"  
  
*** (Half Hour later...)  
  
Annie had left the room about 20 minutes ago to tell the Professor to get someone to Hannah's apartment, and now Hannah was getting to be extremely bored. She got up, fixing her pants and Angel's shirt, her tail unconsciously wrapping itself around her pantleg.  
  
She walked around for a while, pulling her molecules apart whenever she saw someone coming. Soon she was at the front door, She saw Kurt and Static and some red haired lady getting ready to leave, all piling into a red pickup truck. She vaguely wondered who's it was. She felt a tap on the shoulder, and heard someone say, "You the newbie?"  
  
Hannah quickly turned around, and saw a short, gruffy looking man with lots of hair and wolfish grin. "Ja, I guess..." she said, beginning to spread her molecules apart.  
  
"Wait up, kid..." Logan said, so Hannah made herself whole again, looking at the man irritably. "What?" she asked. She really did not want to talk to anyone right now.  
  
"Didn't get ta introduce myself. Name's Logan." He extended a hand, and Hannah looked at it, placing both of her hands behind her back. His hands didn't look very clean... Logan looked at his own hand, shrugging and pulling it back.  
  
"Call me Dämon."  
  
"Demon?" Logan asked, translating, an eyebrow raised.  
  
"It's a long story."  
  
Logan nodded. If the girl wanted her privacy, she could have it. "So— you imprint?" he asked.  
  
"I copy. There's a difference."  
  
"Whatever you say, kid."  
  
Hannah shifted uncomfortably. "M'name's not kid." When Logan only grinned at her, she continued, "So— what do you do?"  
  
"Oh, you'll find out whenever ya have your first Danger room session, I suppose."  
  
"Danger r—"  
  
"There's a session going on right now. I'll show ya where it is, if you want."  
  
Hannah shifted her stance again, her eyebrows furrowed. "Session? Is someone in there?"  
  
"Yeah. Paige is in there right now," Logan answered. When her face showed no recognition, he sighed. "You'll hafta meet Paige. Let me bring ya there."  
  
Shrugging, Hannah finally nodded. "Lead the way, mein Herr."  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
A girl with metal skin was evading very fast mechanical arms and laser beams. Logan, noting the shocked look on Hannah's face, smiled. "That's only level three, darling. Paige decided ta take it easy today." Hannah raised an eyebrow, continuing to watch.  
  
"M'name's not 'darling'."  
  
"That's better than 'bub', kid."  
  
"M'name's not 'kid' either."  
  
"Okay, munchkin," Logan replied. This was actually sorta fun, at least from Logan's point of view...  
  
"My name is not bloody munchkin!"  
  
"I didn't say bloody munchkin, I said 'munchkin'."  
  
"So now you're making fun of the way I talk. Didn't you ever learn manners?" she asked him, the beginnings of an angry look on her face.  
  
"Nah— I musta skipped school that day," Logan replied with a toothy grin.  
  
"Bloody faffing imbecile of a pillock..."she muttered to herself, now utterly angry. This 'Logan' character was really rubbing her the wrong way...  
  
"I'm a what?" he asked, amused. Grinning humorously at the look he was giving her, Hannah replied, "I called you a 'bloody faffing imbecile of a pillock.'" Logan shook his head, shrugging, his attention returning to the 'danger room', where all of the machinery was now receding into the wall. The metal-skinned girl walked out of the (now featureless, blank, and white,) room.  
  
"Now, that is cool... Danger room, ja?" Hannah said, more to herself than to Logan. "So— are you going in there?" she asked him, an 'innocent' look on her purple, pointy-eared face. Logan actually looked remotely scared for a second, but he recovered himself, saying, "With you at the controls? Hell, no."  
  
"Who's this?"  
  
Hannah turned around, finding the girl with metal skin behind her, except now she had regular skin.  
  
"Paige, meet the Munchkin..."  
  
Hannah swung at Logan, saying, "I'm gonna kill you!" It was more of a playful swing then the words suggested, but Logan was game. He blocked the punch, then pulled her closer, extending his outer claws around her neck. Hannah grinned at him, her molecules separating. She appeared instantaneously on the other end of the room.  
  
"So that's what you do, ja—Herr Logan?"  
  
Logan looked extremely angry now. "You should have let me pull my claws back, Hannah, not ported out of the way!" Hannah was confused, but Paige said, "Your neck is bleeding."  
  
Hannah reached a hand to her neck, feeling. Yep— her neck was bleeding. Logan hadn't cut her— that was her body's way of telling her that she had used Fusion's power too much that day. She must have left behind a few hundred molecules.  
  
"I could have killed ya!" Logan continued. Paige laughed as Hannah just swatted at him with her hand. "Paige, you stop laughing! This is serious!" Hannah smiled. "Should have thought of that before you put you claws out, no? Besides, it wasn't your fault. I've used this power too much today— I left some molecules behind."  
  
At the look Logan gave her, (infuriation that she had led him on, and relief that he hadn't cut her neck,) Hannah laughed, pulling her molecules apart one last time.  
  
~I knew you were just a little kaetzchen inside...~ she purred into his head. Logan looked around. That was annoying— not being able to see the person insulting you.  
  
"Where're you going?" Paige asked, also looking around. Where'd she gone?  
  
~Don't know. I need clothes and Shorty here certainly can't help me there.~ Hannah made sure that she 'spoke' this to both of them, and that Logan heard it.  
  
Wolverine ignored the comment, heading for the danger room's entrance, while Paige began to hype up. "You can borrow some stuff from me! Me and Jubes will help you pick something out! I'm supposed to meet her anyway! I'm sure I have something in your size!"  
  
Hannah became visible yet again, and Wolverine was in the danger room. "Level 15 please," he said to the computer. The moment Logan wasn't looking, she increased the level to 25, then ran back to Paige.  
  
"So— where're we going?" Hannah asked, to which Paige replied, "I'll bring you to my room. Wow— you probably don't know where anything is. Well, the boy's wing is that way, but my room's this way."  
  
So, Hannah followed Paige to her room, opening the door. An asian looking girl was sitting on the bed, looking extremely bored.  
  
"Where've you been, Paige?" she began, but then saw Hannah. "Who're you?" Hannah flinched visibly. That was the kind of reaction a purple demon got, she guessed...  
  
"You be nice! This is Hannah, and she needs clothes for today. Xavier just recruited her, and her stuff isn't here yet."  
  
"Jacob and Kurt and some red-haired lady are getting my stuff from my apartment. Annie won't let me leave the med lab," Hannah said.  
  
"Annie won't?" Jubilee asked, winking.  
  
"Yep. I got bored."  
  
Jubilee smiled. This was her kind of girl... "Sorry to interrupt, but let's get the clothes, shall we?" Paige asked, and Hannah nodded.  
  
Paige and Jubilee worked feverishly, both of them absolutely tearing the wardrobe apart and making Hannah try on millions of different things. Hannah absolutely refused to wear anything that showed any amount of skin, and every time she had to change, she retreated into the closet, not coming out for 2 or three minutes. Needless to say, Paige and Jubilee were becoming frustrated.  
  
Did I mention that they were still on the pants?  
  
Hannah finally found a pair— low cut capris that she thought were 'okay'. Since Hannah had longer legs than Paige, the pants came up a little shorter than they should have, but she figured she'd live.  
  
"Low cut..." she mumbled, then said to Paige, "They're too—"  
  
"What— do you think you're a nun or something? They're fine!" Paige said, exasperated.  
  
"Fine. F-I-N-E— Frantic, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional," Hannah retorted, stealing one of her social worker's favorite sayings.  
  
Just then, Angel walked past the door. He had heard a bunch of commotion, and decided to investigate. The door was ajar a couple of inches, so he glanced in, an eyebrow raised. Hannah was standing amidst of pile of clothes, her tail, (part of which was in a splint— she must have broken it falling down the stairs...) twitching nervously behind her.  
  
"Help me!" she mouthed, seeing Angel...  
  
Angel pushed the door open a bit more, smiling. "Okay, Paige, hand her over. I'll get her one of my shirts," he said, amusement plain in his voice.  
  
"You don't have any girl's shirts! She can't wear another of yours— they certainly don't flatter her figure at all!" Paige said heatedly.  
  
"But I don't want to 'flatter' my figure!" Hannah objected, feeling like a little kid. She was purple now, and had two pairs of wings— she definitely did not need to show any skin— nor did she want to.  
  
Paige ignored her, so Angel asked pointedly, "Do you have any shirts with the backs cut out for wings?"  
  
"We can cut one of mine!" Paige objected.  
  
Angel sighed. "Paige, she's only going to be wearing these clothes until Jean, Static, and Kurt come back with her stuff. Are you really going to cut up one of your shirts for a couple of hours use?"  
  
Paige huffed, sighing. "Fine. Go ahead..." She then smiled to show no hard feelings, so Hannah smiled back, feeling a bit awkward. Jubilee waved as Hannah walked out the door with Hannah. The moment the door was closed, she leaned against it, as if to keep something locked in, gasping for breath. Angel smiled warmly, saying, "I guess I could see how Paige could have that affect on some one." Hannah stood up straight, and began following Angel on his way to the 'Boy's Wing', saying, "You're telling me..."  
  
"I should know this place like the back of my hand soon— I'm being dragged in twenty directions at once..." she said, smiling. Angel looked at her, shaking his head and laughing, "You're supposed to be in the med lab..." Hannah stuck her tongue out, not really caring if she looked childish in front of him. So far, he was the only person she had really 'clicked' with in America. "Supposed to, shamoshed to."  
  
They walked for a little ways, until they were at his room. Angel opened the door, walking in, followed by Hannah, who hesitantly shut the door partially. He dug through one of his dresser drawers, finally pulling out a blue dress shirt that he thought would be okay. "This was mine when I first came to the mansion— it should be smaller than the one you have on." Hannah grinned, saying, "So, you're saying you didn't have as much muscle back then?"  
  
Angel raised an eyebrow, not quite sure whether it was a playful tease or an insult. "I was the millionaire playboy— what do you expect?" Hannah only smiled, glancing at her two-toed feet before glancing back at him. Noticing her gaze, and the fact that her eyes shifted to different colors, Angel shifted his stance uncomfortably. "Quit that. Your eyes change," he said, looking away.  
  
Hannah raised an eyebrow. "They're changing because *I* have to change." At first, Angel thought that she was saying that her *eyes* had to change, but then he realized she meant that her eyes were changing colors because she wanted to change her shirt. Angel took a step back, saying, "Oh— ahm, sorry..." After a moment, he furrowed his eyebrows, asking, "Wait a second! Are you kicking me out of my own room?"  
  
Hannah smirked. "Basically? Ja." Angel rolled his eyes, shaking his head and heading out the door. "there. Are you happy?" he asked, standing just outside.  
  
"Yes," she replied.  
  
There was a minute's silence, before she asked from inside, her voice tinged with disbelief, "Is this Italian cotton?" Continuing in an undertone, she said, "Guess he wasn't kidding about the millionaire part..."  
  
"Italian cotton..." he confirmed, a smile on his face. "Nice..." she said in an appreciative tone. After another five minutes, the door opened and Hannah walked out, the shirt tucked in, her mumbling about not having a belt. Her two pairs of wings were out behind her, tightly clinging to her back, and her tail had wrapped itself around one of her ankles. "I had to make the splits longer," she said guiltily, then continued, "I'll need to get someone to lace it up or something.  
  
"With what? I could do it for you," Angel said, shrugging. Hannah shifted her weight from one foot to the other nervously, saying, "Leather string or something. I'll have Paige do it," her voice not seeming *entirely* enthusiastic about the idea of being locked in the room with Paige and Jubilee again. Angel nodded, smirking slightly.  
  
"Have Paige do what?" came a voice from down the hall. Warren looked up, sighing slightly as he said, less-than-enthusiastically, "Hello, Stacy..."  
  
"Hey, yourself, Angel. Who's this? Nice shirt," Stacy said. Hannah blushed furiously, her skin changing to a funny looking red-purple and she said, "It's Warren's shirt. My name's Hannah— call me Dämon."  
  
"Oh— the other new girl. Warren— the Professor wants you to meet the other new recruit— this really annoying blonde named 'Chris'," Stacy said, to which Warren rolled his eyes.  
  
"Okay, Hannah, have Stacy lace up the shirt while I go meet Chris. I'll see you around, okay?" He smiled charmingly, and Hannah had no choice but to smile back. "Sure. It was nice meeting you for the third time..." Angel laughed, nodding. "You too."  
  
Stacy put a hand on Hannah's shoulders, turning her around. "Under the wings?" she asked, and Hannah nodded. Hannah had had to slit the shirt even longer than it had been cut for Warren's wings to make room for her *two* pairs.  
  
"I think it looks fine like it is..." Stacy began. Angel rolled his eyes, knowing that wasn't the best thing to say to the girl. Hannah's eyes widened slightly, and she said, "Okay, Warren, you can do it!"  
  
Angel laughed, shaking his head nad heading down the hall as Stacy said, "God! I was just kidding... Well, not really, but—" Hannah looked at Stacy, then at Angel's receding figure, then back to Stacy, finally shrugging and sighing, saying, "So— do you know where any leather string and big needles are?"  
  
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There it is, Chapter 5. So— is Chris a boy or a girl? I've got it's powers already and that kinda stuff, but I can't make my mind up on the gender... hehe. I'm taking votes, but more especially, I'm TAKING REVIEWS!!  
  
So— please review, it only takes two minutes... It's in the little purple box down here.  
  
Reb-  
  
Down here.  
  
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